LogInWait, hasn't the "mute" button been present in almost every multiplayer game ever made?
Bungie's extraction shooter Marathon has received an official gameplay overview trailer and dominated headlines across the globe over the weekend, with player reactions ranging from enthusiastic praise to "this is literally Concord 2: Electric Boogaloo."
Among the various concerns raised by gamers – such as the price, the company's reported goal of making Marathon the "ultimate live service," the art style, character designs, the question of whether launching yet another extraction shooter in 2025 is a good idea, and so on – one of the most talked-about points is the lack of proximity chat in Marathon, and even more so, Bungie's explanation for that decision, which, to put it mildly, is somewhat questionable.
Speaking to PC Gamer, Marathon's Game Director Joe Ziegler explained that while the team is not against the idea of the proximity chat, their main priority is to create a safe environment for players, and according to Bungie, they haven't yet found a reliable way to prevent random players from using prox chat to say unpleasant things.
In Ziegler's words, the team is so dedicated to making sure that players don't encounter any toxicity in Marathon, they would prefer not to include the feature – which some might argue is a staple of the genre – at all, unless a proper "solution" can be found.
"When it comes to prox chat, I don't think we're against the experience of it, to be fair," Ziegler said. "I think the challenge is how to make sure we're creating a safe environment for players inside of that space. I don't think anyone really has a good solution to that just yet. Because we're so dedicated to making sure that we're creating a safe space where we don't have players just flaming each other or doing terrible things to one another, I think we're not ready to invest in prox chat until we have a solution.
I think that's where we stand right now. Like, if it was magical and we could somehow come up with that solution, I think we totally would do it. But right now, it is a challenge that many companies are trying to figure out."
Setting aside the obvious concerns about the studio's apparent intention to make Marathon a sterile, corporate "safe space" where players could get banned for badmouthing others – even if those involved are in on the joke and don't mind the "toxicity" that Bungie execs seemingly fear so much – the claim that there's "no solution" has raised a lot of eyebrows online.
Most multiplayer games with voice chat, whether they're extraction shooters, FPS titles, MOBAs, or otherwise, already offer the ability to mute voice chat entirely or block specific players. Even PC Gamer itself pointed out that games like Escape from Tarkov and Hunt: Showdown – both extraction shooters with proximity chat – simply give players the option to disable it. With that in mind, many gamers found Bungie's statement about there being no solution unconvincing at best, raising the question of what the real reason behind the absence of prox chat might be.
And what do you think about it? What do you believe is the real reason behind Bungie overlooking the simple addition of "mute" and "mute all" buttons? Should AAA studios even be concerned about creating "safe spaces"? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
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